Let's Look - Juggling Family Schedules

Linking up with Shay and Erika for Let's Look. I’m a day late still wanted to join in. 

This month we are talking about juggling family schedules.  Now, I only have two kids and they don’t have a ton of things to get to, so unlike some people, like the hosts of this link up, who each have four children, our juggling is a bit more manageable. Things that work for us:

Keeping it simple - As noted above, we don’t have a lot of things that the kids do in any given season. They do one sport per season for the most part.  They have music lessons and swimming during the school year, and have had scheduled tutoring. 

Flexible jobs - This is so key and I don’t always appreciate it.  Both Dave and I have hybrid work situations where we are in the office some days and working from home on some days.  And despite somewhat set hours of work, we can be flexible on our arrival and departure times if necessary.  In other words, we don’t have jobs where we need to clock in at a certain time, or meet people for set appointments at 9:00 am (for example).  To make things even easier for us is that I am working exclusively from home this summer while we are in between offices, and it adds a lot of convenience for camp drop offs and pick ups. 

Kids Getting Themselves to School - The kids have been walking to school together for the past few years, and although Q has been at the after school program at the YMCA, if we needed to change plans, he could just come home with E after school so we didn’t always need to pick him up. Next year they will be in different schools but Q will be old enough to get himself there (and/or meet up with friends along the way), and we are undecided on whether he goes to the Y or not. They have also been able to get themselves to and from music lessons which is very helpful!

Two cars - We have always had two cars and we often debate if we need two or one.  But certainly having two cars makes everything easier as there is less need to sync up schedules. We don’t always have both cars on the road at all times, but it’s good to have that second one when we need it.  

Public Transit - We also have the option for the subway and bus. And as E gets older he will be able to travel on that by himself to get where he needs to be.

Calendar invites - Dave and I have our own work calendars and we will invite each other to things so we have everything synced up.  This is not always a completely foolproof solution but it mostly works.

Written calendar - We also have a written calendar at home that everyone can consult. Again, this is in theory, there are some things that slip through. 

Non-negotiables - There are certain activities that get priority - for Dave that’s golf on Wednesday nights and Saturday morning (and sometimes Sunday), for me it’s choir practice and church during the school year and ladies night golf in the summer.  There is also work travel for both us.  Once those things are in the calendar, the rest of the family adapts.